Effort pays off.
There's a player whose talent is fairly average, who didn't even make his debut in the NBA's second-round show.
In the case of such a big headwind, the average player will choose to leave the United States, return to his hometown professional league, or join other overseas leagues to do a career.
And he didn't want to do it, he always felt that the NBA was his destination.
In the summer of 2018, he had just finished playing his last collegiate league.
That year, he averaged 16.3 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.6 blocks per game, and his outstanding defensive performance made him the Atlantic Division's Defensive Player of the Year.
It was also the year that he was spotted by the NBA team, the Grizzlies, on July 21, 2018. He signed a two-way contract with the team.
A "two-way contract," one of the lowest-level contracts in the NBA, is signed by players who do not count toward the team's salary cap and have no incentive bonuses, surprise compensation, or team player options.
NBA players with 170 days a season, two-way contract players, can only play for a maximum of 45 days, up to 810,000 basic salary contracts.
The rest of the time, these must be spent in the development alliance, at best, to get 75,000 US dollars.
He waited in the dormancy.
On 28 October 2018, he got his first chance to play.
Played five minutes and had 2 points and 2 rebounds. Facing the overwhelming media footage, his expression proud and confident, he said:
"It's been nearly 14 years since Yuta Played in the NBA, and no Japanese player has played in the NBA. As a Japanese player, we are also improving now, and I want to make Japanese fans proud of me and I want to inspire more and more children. ”
In his two years with the Grizzlies, he played a total of 33 times, playing no more than ten minutes. Staying, getting not much, a platform for growth experience and the opportunity to continue to impact the NBA.
Toward the end of his contract, he tweeted: "Coach Ansi, I want to play basketball. ”
This sentence ushered in an era of Japanese basketball.
Inoue's "Slam Dunk Master" has influenced a generation, and I really don't know if the author thought about the future when he created the manga, Japan will also have so many NBA players?
In 2020, Yuta Watanabe joined the Raptors.
Start with training camp and sign an Exhibit 10 contract, which was converted into a two-way contract at the start of the season.
Three days ago, Watanabe played 26 minutes and had 21 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block, setting a new career high.
Yesterday, Raptors official Watanabe turned positive and will sign a formal contract with him.
Raptors coach Nas said: "Every day the first player to come to the training ground and the last player to leave is always Watanabe. ”
The reporter reported: "The Raptors released this news a day in advance to allow Japanese fans to receive it at the most prime time of the evening." ”
Raptors official Hiroshi posted a photo of Watanabe signing with the caption: "Win, not give." ”
Watanabe tweeted himself: "From Exhibit10 to two-way contracts to formal contracts, continuous efforts will definitely be rewarded." ”
Inoue said in the manga that the dreams of youth are always incomplete.
But what he didn't say was that if one Liuchuan Feng failed, there would be thousands of Liuchuan Feng standing up, and among them, there would always be one who would realize the dream of youth.